Popular Edition. RESULTS OF EMANCIPATION. By AUGUSTIN
COCHIN, Ex-Maire and Municipal Councillor of Paris. Work
crowned by the Institute of France (Académie Française). Translated
by MARY L. BOOTH, Translator of Count de Gasparin's work
on America, etc. Fourth thousand. Boston: Walker, Wise & Co., 245
Washington street. 1864.
A remarkable book, indicative of a new era in the discussion of social,
religious, political, and economical questions. Prejudice, misstatement,
and fanaticism are apparently so opposed to the clear, candid mind of
the author, that he has needed no effort to avoid them, and in their
stead give us simple truth, broad views of men and things, and the
highest conceptions of duty and charity, together with the nicest
consideration of the rights and material interests, even the local
prejudices and misconceptions, of our fellow mortals. He shows clearly
that a _moral_ wrong can never long tend to _material_ advantage, and
that the laws of _society_ cannot be made ultimately to triumph over the
laws of _nature_; neither, in general, can a wrong be righted without
some suffering by way of expiation.
Although filled with statistical details, the work cannot fail to be
intensely interesting to the general reader. Lofty, hopeful, rational,
and yet progressive in its tone, it is calculated to do great good, not
only through the useful information and instructive generalizations it
makes known, but also as a model of right feeling, and consequent good
breeding, in its peculiar sphere.
The chapters upon the sugar question are wonderfully lucid and
convincing. Their bearing upon mooted points of political economy
recommend them to the study of all interested in that intricate subject.
The distressing relations necessarily existing between slavery and
religious instruction are also plainly set forth, and the general
conclusion of the book (that 'emancipation' is not only possible, but
most expedient, and that, with certain care upon the part of the
Government and of slave owners, an immediate and simultaneous liberation
is likely to breed fewer disturbances and less evil than gradual
disenthralment) seems to be rapidly gaining ground in the convictions of
our own countrymen. The conscience, and prophetic dreams of priests,
women, and poets, have long given assurance of such results, but the
world, of course, required definite experience and practical essays
before instituting any extensive course of action in that direction.
'A council held in the city of London in 1102, under the presidency
of St. Anselm, interdicted trade in slaves. This was eight hundred
years before the same object was debated in the same city before
Parliament. In 1780, Thomas Clarkson proposed to abolish the slave
trade. In 1787, Wilberforce renewed the proposition. Seven times
presented from 1793 to 1799, the bill seven times failed.
Successively laid over, it triumphed at length in 1806 and 1807.
All the Christian nations followed this memorable example. At the
Congress of Vienna, all the Powers pledged themselves to unite
their efforts to obtain _the entire and final abolition of a
traffic so odious and so loudly reproved by the laws of religion
and nature_. The slave trade was abolished in 1808 by the American
United States; in 1811, by Denmark, Portugal, and Chili; in 1813,
by Sweden; in 1814 and 1815, by Holland; in 1815, by France; in
1822, by Spain. In this same year, 1822, Wilberforce attacked
slavery after the slave trade, and won over public opinion by
appeals and repeated meetings, while his friend Mr. Buxton proposed
emancipation in Parliament. The Emancipation Bill was presented in
1833. On the 1st of August, 1834, slavery ceased to sully the soil
of the English colonies. In 1846, Sweden, in 1847, Denmark,
Uruguay, Wallachia, and Tunis, obeyed the same impulse, which
France followed in 1848, Portugal in 1856, and which Holland
promised to imitate in 1860. An earnest movement agitated Brazil.'
In Poland, the serfdom of the peasants was never sanctioned by law, but
existed in later times by reason of exception and abuse. Stanislas
Leszczynski, King of Poland, in 1720 raised his voice in favor of the
peasant population; the same principles were in 1768 defended, sword in
hand, by the Confederation of Bar, discussed in the diets of 1776, 1780,
1788, and finally adopted by the famous Constituent Assembly of 1791.
Thadeus Kosciuszko (May 7th, 1794), then Dictator of Poland, issued a
document giving entire personal liberty to all serfs; and on the 22d of
January, 1863, the members of the 'National Polish Government' decreed
that the peasants were not only free, but were entitled to a certain
portion of land, of which they should be the sole proprietors. In 1861,
Russia emancipated all serfs within her borders. In the United States,
the stern 'logic of events' seems to be rapidly bringing about similar
results, although indeed 'slavery' and 'serfdom' should never be
mentioned together, being so essentially different; the one the
possession of the _man_, the other merely the ownership of his _labor_
or of a _portion of its results_.
We cannot better conclude than by giving the following extract from the
Introduction of M. Cochin, who, by the way, is a man of good family and
ample fortune, an eminent publicist, and a Catholic of the school of
Lacordaire, Montalembert, Monseigneur d'Orleans, and the Prince de
Broglie:
'It was once exclaimed, Perish the colonies, rather than a
principle! The principle has not perished, the colonies have not
perished.
'It is not correct that interests should yield to principles;
between legitimate interests and true principles, harmony is
infallible; this is truth. Those who look only to interests are
sooner or later deceived in their calculations; those who,
exclusively occupied with principles, are generous without being
practical, cease to be generous, for they lead the cause which they
serve to certain destruction. It is the will of God that realities
should mingle with ideas, and that material obstacles should compel
the purchase of progress by toil.'
The publishers tell us that, a large demand for this work having arisen,
they have issued this 'popular edition,' wherein the figures in the
original are given as nearly as possible in the American currencies,
measures, etc.
STUMBLING BLOCKS. By GAIL HAMILTON, Author of
'Country Living and Country Thinking,' 'Gala Days,' etc. Boston:
Ticknor & Fields, For sale by D. Appleton & Co., New York.
Gail Hamilton's religious position gives her vast advantages. She is
thoroughly orthodox, Calvinistic, and Congregational, and being neither
Unitarian nor Catholic, will not be regarded as one of the 'Suspect' by
the great community of the so-called evangelical Christians. But she is
a bold, independent thinker, and spurns the trammels of bigotry and
prescription. No party spirit blinds her clear vision, no sectarian
prejudice vitiates her statements of the creeds of others, or induces
her to veil the faults and follies of those worshipping in the same
church with herself. Ministers are by no means immaculate saints in her
eyes. Seating herself in the pews, she preaches better sermons to them
than they are in the habit of giving to their people; taking possession
of their pulpits, she shows them what might and ought to be done from
that throne of power. Petty vanities, subjective experiences recorded in
morbid journals, religious frames of mind frequently dwelt upon until
the tortured self-watcher is driven into insanity, fall under her
scathing rebuke.
This volume deals chiefly with the shortcomings of the orthodox
religious world. Its faults of temper, its repulsive manners, its custom
of making home unlovely, its distaste of innocent amusement, its habits
of censure, its self-sufficiency and pharisaical character, are touched
with a caustic but healing power. Only the hand of a friend could have
done this thing. No point of doctrine is questioned, no principle of
faith invaded, no charity wounded. She probes in love--her object is
cure. This book is fresh and vigorous, worth thousands of lifeless
sermons and unprofitable religious journals. No prejudice or falsehood
is spared, though it may have taken refuge in the very sanctuary. Her
every shaft is well directed, every arrow powerfully sent, every shot
strikes the bull's eye in its centre. Her words are hailstones rattling
fell and fast, but melt into and soften the heart on which they fall.
Delusions disappear, cant and want of courtesy become odious, shams grow
shameful, while all lovely things bloom lovelier in the light of truth
emanating from this large brain, and poured through this living heart.
We bask in its sunshine, growing strong and happy as we read. Christian
fervor and charity, love for Redeemer and redeemed, for saint and
sinner, cheer us through all these well-deserved denunciations. Her
style is clear and rapid, her matter of daily and urgent import, her
characterizations of classes and types of men worthy of La Bruyère
himself, her satire melts into humor, her humor into pathos. She has
been attacked by some of the religious papers, and has herein taken a
true Christian and magnanimous revenge. O Gail! the clergy should open
wide their hearts to take you in, their gifted child, the iconoclast
within the temple, the faithful disciple of Christ, the lover of purity
and truth!
We quote the following brave words from this remarkable book:
'We sometimes see religious newspapers charging each other with
acts which should exclude the perpetrators from the fraternity of
_honest_ men; for, through the medium of religious newspapers, one
church, or one fraction of a church, or one ecclesiastical body, or
one member of it, accuses another of an act, or a course of action,
which, in sober truth, amounts to nothing more or less than
_obvious, persistent deception, dishonesty and trickery_.... Can
such be correct transcripts of facts? Is it true that a church, or
any body corporate, whose very existence as such is professedly to
cultivate and disseminate the principles of sound morality and true
religion, does fall so far short of the faith delivered to the
saints--does so far forget its origin, and pervert its aims, as to
violate common law and common honesty, and persist in its
violation, deliberately, against repeated remonstrances, by sheer
force? Yet we see no convulsion in the community. Nothing intimates
that a great grief is fallen upon Israel. Everybody eats, drinks,
and sleeps as usual. The pulpits still stand, and the law and the
gospel are appealed to from that vantage ground. The sacramental
cup is still raised to devout lips. The gray heads of the culprits
still go in and out among the people with no diminishing of
honor--no odium is attached to their persons; no stigmas to their
names. What a state of things does this argue! A whole church
plunges into darkness, and the
'Majestic heaven
Shines not the less for that one vanished star.'
'Can we wonder that the world will not let itself be converted? To
what should it be converted, if it were willing? Would it be an
advance for a community that sends its thieves to prison when it
catches them to merge itself in a community that is content to
print a few columns of _exposé_ on the subject? If the stream where
you wish to drink is muddy, you will scarcely find clear waters by
descending. You want to go up, not down; up on the high lands where
threads of crystal cleave the gray old rocks, and gather purity
from earth's deep bosom and the sky's clear blue.
'If it is not so, if the acts only appear dishonest because we are
looking at one side, why do we not say so, or why do we say
anything about it? Every man is to be held innocent till he is
proved guilty. If there is any standpoint from which we can view
our opponent's position and find it not dishonest, we ought to
mention it. We have no right to look at him from _a_ standpoint,
and hold him up to view as a criminal, and ignore _another_, from
which he may be seen as simply mistaken, or deceived, or blameless.
Still less have we a right to take innocent facts and construct
upon them a guilty hypothesis to suit our foregone conclusion. A
_right_ to do it? _It is sin_. _It is more than murder_. It may rob
a man of what is more precious to him than his life. It attempts to
take away from a man what, taken, would leave him stripped of his
manhood, and a man's manhood is worth more to him and his friends
than his bone and muscle.'
Ah, Gail, thy keen aim has indeed struck the pupil of the bull's eye! If
false statements of varying dogmas were held 'as criminal as they
undoubtedly are,' if they were never viewed from 'foregone conclusions,'
sects would perish in the death of misconceptions, and warring
Christians would rush into each other's arms with the joy-cry,
'Brothers!' Through the misstatements of centuries, the good Protestant
minister regards the Catholic priest, ready as he may be to die for the
faith of his fathers, as a _wilful liar_, a _conscious deceiver_,
selling the souls of his flock for a Judas bribe; while the equally good
priest, in his turn, looks upon the conscientious minister as a despiser
of authority, an enemy of the Church of Christ, refusing to hear what he
believes to be its undoubted teachings, a blind man, leading the blind
into the pit of perdition. The men may be both right from the standpoint
of their 'foregone conclusions,' both wrong from the standpoint of fact.
And so it goes on, through all the lesser sectarian divisions.
Everywhere misstatement, misconception, and smouldering hatred. The
first step to reconciliation among the antagonistic members of Christ's
torn body, would be to put into instantaneous practice the wise, sound,
and just maxims of Gail Hamilton. Let us begin it, lovers of truth and
justice!
THE MAINE WOODS. By HENRY D. THOREAU, Author of
'A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers,' 'Walden,'
'Excursions,' etc. Boston: Ticknor & Fields. For sale by D.
Appleton & Co., New York.
The first of the papers contained in this book was published in 'The
Union Magazine;' the second, 'Chesuncook,' came out in the 'Atlantic
Monthly,' in 1858; the last is now for the first time printed. The
contents of the volume are as follows: Ktaadn, Chesuncook, The Allegash
and East Branch; in the Appendix we have Trees, Flowers, and Shrubs,
List of Plants, List of Birds, Quadrupeds, Outfit for an Excursion, and
a List of Indian Words. Henry D. Thoreau was an enthusiastic lover of
nature, but no blind adorer of her loveliness. He knew her in all her
moods, was familiar with all her caprices. He was a man of strong brain,
and of accurate knowledge in such fields as it pleased him to study. The
woods have never before had such an accurate biographer, such a true
painter. He saw them with the eye of the poet as well as that of the
naturalist. Scholarship and imagination roam with him in the primeval
forests. After the most accurate and detailed description of a moose
which had been killed by his Indian guide, this anti-sentimentalist, but
true forest lover says: 'Here, just at the head of the murmuring rapids,
Joe now proceeded to skin the moose with a pocket knife, while I looked
on; and a tragical business it was--to see that still warm and
palpitating body pierced with a knife, to see the warm milk stream from
the rent udder, and the ghastly naked red carcass appearing from within
its seemly robe, which was made to hide it.' There is no joy of the
hunter here! The words are as 'tragical' and tender as were those of the
melancholy Jaques. That 'warm milk and rent udder' seems to make the
stately creature half human. He proceeds:
'But on more accounts than one, I had had enough of moose hunting.
I had not come to the woods for this purpose, nor had I foreseen
it, though I had been willing to learn how the Indian manoeuvred;
but one moose killed was as good, if not as bad, as a dozen. The
afternoon's tragedy and my share in it, as it affected the
_innocence_, destroyed the _pleasure_ of my adventure. This hunting
of the moose merely for the satisfaction of killing him--not even
for the sake of his hide--without making any extraordinary exertion
or running any risk yourself, is too much like going out by night
to some woodside pasture and shooting your neighbor's horses. These
are God's own horses, poor timid creatures, that will run fast
enough as soon as they smell you, though they are _nine_ feet high
(often eleven, with the antlers).... You strip off its hide,
because that is the common trophy, and moreover you have heard it
may be sold for mocassons--cut a steak from its body, and leave the
huge carcass 'to smell to heaven' for you. It is no better, at
least, than to assist at a slaughter house. This afternoon's
experience suggested to me how base or coarse are the motives which
commonly carry men into the wilderness. The explorers and lumberers
generally are hirelings, paid so much a day for their labor, and as
such they have no more love for wild nature than wood sawyers have
for forests. Other white men and Indians who come here are for the
most part hunters, whose object is to slay as many moose and other
wild animals as possible. But pray, could not one spend some weeks
or years in the solitude of this vast wilderness with other
employments than these--employments perfectly sweet, innocent, and
ennobling? For one that comes with a pencil to sketch or sing, a
thousand come with an axe or rifle. What a coarse and imperfect use
Indians and hunters make of nature! No wonder that their race is so
soon exterminated. I already, and for weeks afterward, felt my
nature the coarser for this part of my woodland experience, and was
reminded that our life should be lived as tenderly and daintily as
one would pluck a flower.'
Again:
'As I sat before the fire on my fir-twig seat, without walls above
or around me, I remembered how far on every hand that wilderness
stretched, before you came to cleared or cultivated fields, and
wondered if any bear or moose was watching the light of my fire;
for nature looked sternly upon me on account of the _murder of the
moose_.
'Strange that so few ever come to the woods to see how the pine
lives and grows and spires, lifting its ever-green arms to the
light--to see its perfect success; but most are content to behold
it in the shape of many broad boards brought to market, and deem
_that_ its true success. But the pine is no more lumber than man
is, and to be made into boards and houses is no more its true and
highest use, than the truest use of a man is to be cut down and
made into manure. There is a higher law affecting our relation to
pines as well as to men. A pine cut down, a dead pine, is no more a
pine than a dead human carcass is a man. Can he who has discovered
only some of the values of whalebone and whale oil be said to have
discovered the true use of the whale? Can he who slays the elephant
for his ivory be said to have 'seen the elephant'? These are petty
and accidental uses; just as if a stronger race were to kill us in
order to make buttons and flageolets of our bones; for everything
may serve a lower as well as a higher use. Every creature is better
alive than dead, men and moose and pine trees, and he who
understands it aright will rather preserve its life than destroy
it.
'Is it the lumberman, then, who is the friend and lover of the
pine, stands nearest to it, and understands its nature best? Is it
the tanner who has barked it, or he who has boxed it for
turpentine, whom posterity will fable to have changed into a pine
at last? No! no! it is the poet; he it is who makes the truest use
of the pine--who does not fondle it with an axe, nor tickle it with
a saw, nor stroke it with a plane--who knows whether its heart is
false without cutting into it--who has not bought the stumpage of
the town on which its stands. All the pines shudder and heave a
sigh when _that_ man steps on the forest floor. No, it is the poet,
who loves them as his own shadow in the air, and lets them stand. I
have been into the lumber yard, the carpenter's shop, the tannery,
the lamp-black factory, and the turpentine clearing; but when at
length I saw the tops of the pines waving and reflecting the light
at a distance over all the rest of the forest, I realized that the
former were not the highest use of the pine. It is not their bones
or hide or tallow that I love most. It is the living spirit of the
tree, not its spirit of turpentine, with which I sympathize, and
which heals my cuts. It is as immortal as I am, and, perchance, may
go to as high a heaven, there to tower above me still.'
Reader, was not this man a nature lover, a nature limner, worthy to take
his place among our Giffords, Whittredges, McEntees, Bierstadts, and
Beards? Truly original, natural, and American, who among our descriptive
writers can surpass H. D. Thoreau?
PRIMARY LESSONS FOR DEAF MUTES. By J. A. JACOBS,
A. M., Principal of the Kentucky Institution for the Education of
Deaf Mutes. New York: John F. Trow, Printer & Publisher, 50 Greene
street, between Broome & Grand. 1864.
An excellent little work, intended to impart some of the rudimentary
branches of learning to that interesting class of our fellow beings who
can neither speak nor hear. Every effort made for their instruction
should be cordially welcomed, for sad indeed is their position, and very
difficult the discovery of means to reach and develop their often very
bright intelligence. These lessons can be used by parents, guardians, or
elder brothers and sisters, before the deaf-mute child is old enough to
send to a regular institution. They are divided into two parts, bound in
separate little volumes, and _filled_ with cuts illustrating the
text--or rather, the text, as is proper in such a work, illustrates the
cuts, which occupy the larger portion of the book. Teachers cannot but
find these aids of incalculable value.
THE RELATIONS OF THE INDUSTRY OF CANADA WITH THE MOTHER COUNTRY
AND THE UNITED STATES. Being a Speech by ISAAC
BUCHANAN, Esq., M. P., as delivered at the late Demonstration
to the Parliamentary Opposition at Toronto; together with a series
of Articles in defence of the National Sentiments contained
therein, which originally appeared in the columns of the _Hamilton
Spectator_, from the pen of Mr. Buchanan; to which is added a
Speech delivered by him at the Dinner given to the Pioneers of
Upper Canada, at London, Canada West, 10th December, 1863. Now
first published in complete and collected form, with copious Notes
and Annotations, besides an extended Introductory Explanation, and
an Appendix containing various valuable Documents. Edited by
HENRY J. MORGAN, Corresponding Member of the New York
Historical Society, and Author of 'Sketches of Celebrated
Canadians.' Montreal: Printed by John Lovell, St. Nicholas. 1864.
We recommend this book to such of our readers as may be interested in
political economy, not as sound in theory, but as containing a vast
array of facts and giving considerable information with regard to the
internal affairs of our neighbor Canada. The Reciprocity Treaty comes in
for its share of consideration. Mr. Buchanan is a Protectionist, and
uses the arguments of his party with considerable ability. The question
of annexation is also incidentally touched upon. We do not know that we
can give our readers a better idea of the contents and policy of this
book than by placing the dedication before them.
'To the leaders of the forthcoming Party of Order, I dedicate these
pages, because I feel that the province is at the winning or the
losing, and that we shall hereafter have to hail you as the honored
instruments of our Political and Industrial salvation.
'In Mr. Buchanan's Letter to the Editor of the Globe, assuring him
publicly that Mr. Buchanan and all his friends, as in the Past, so
in the Future, would be found opponents to the death of Annexation,
and not its friends, as that journal basely insinuated, he states
that he is of no party, though reluctantly compelled to be in
opposition to the present ministry in consequence of their acts,
Executive as well as Legislative; but that he is of a class far
more numerous than the 'thick and thin' adherents of either of the
present _soi-disant_ parties. Those alluded to by Mr. Buchanan will
form a new party--the Party of Order, which will probably be called
the 'Constitutional Party'--its platform being broad enough to hold
all who value and respect the time-honored Constitution, whether
they be original Reformers or Conservatives in name. The new Party
of Order will comprise these elements:
'First. Conservative Liberals, or old Reformers, who have been
taught by experience, and are willing now to adopt the word
'Conservative,' at least in its adjective sense.
'Secondly. Liberal Conservatives, or old Tories, or their
descendants, who have also been taught by experience, and are
willing to adopt the word 'Liberal,' at least in its adjective
sense.
'Thirdly. Conservatives, and Conservative Liberals, who have
unwittingly been mingled up with the incendiary party, composed of
'Clear Grits' and 'Rouges.'
'And that in your discussions on the great question of the
Reciprocity Law, now about to agitate both Canada and the United
States, these pages may be of some service, is the fond hope of
your obedient servant,
'THE EDITOR.'
FAMILY PRIDE. By the Author of 'Pique.' Philadelphia: T.
B. Peterson & Brothers, 306 Chestnut street.
Family Pride is a novel of still greater interest than 'Pique.' The plot
is well conceived, the characters skilfully developed, and the attention
is fascinated even to the end. The moral is unexceptionable, the style
fresh and pure. We must however enter an earnest protest against the
manifest injustice of the closing sentence, where the talented author
has gone out of his way to find a blot for his book, the only stain upon
his fair pages. It reads thus: 'After a variety of vicissitudes, she had
embraced the Romish faith: that religion which relieves from all
personal responsibility in spiritual matters; and which teaches that
earthly penance and ascetic observances will open the gates of heaven to
the vilest of criminals.' We have studied Westminster, Episcopal, and
Catholic catechisms, the teachings in all three of which are that faith
in Christ and sorrow for and renunciation of sin alone can open the
gates of heaven. We regard it as the duty of a conscientious reviewer to
point out an erroneous statement wherever it occurs, whether in regard
to the faith of Protestants, Catholics, Hebrews, Mohammedans, Fire
Worshippers, or any other classes of men whatsoever. Misstatement has
caused an immense deal of bloodshed and bitterness among Christians. The
walls of Zion must be built of the stones of truth.
THE TANNER BOY, AND HOW HE BECAME LIEUTENANT-GENERAL. By
MAJOR PENNIMAN. 'The boy is father to the man.' Fifth
thousand. Boston: Roberts Brothers, publishers, 143 Washington
street. 1864.
A lively account of the boyhood and subsequent career of one likely to
be famous in American history. The nation's eyes are at this moment
turned hopefully upon the result of Gen. Grant's campaign in Virginia,
and all will be glad to learn that his previous life offers so fair and
pleasant a record. One observation, however, we feel called upon to make
to the entertaining Major: the youth of America should be taught to
love, to live for, and, if need be, to die for their country; but they
should also be taught to shun narrow exclusiveness and boastful vanity.
A government of a whole people should in this respect set a noble
example to all other nations.
The 'Tanner Boy' has already reached its 'fifth thousand,' and will no
doubt be eagerly read by all the patriotic boys and girls in the land.
WAX FLOWERS. J. E. Tilton & Co., Boston. 1864.
This little book contains somewhat over a hundred pages, and is gotten
up in the attractive style for which the publications of this firm have
become noted. A prefatory chapter sets forth the object of the work, and
the claims of the art. The first part treats of Wax Fruit, giving the
methods of making moulds and casting therefrom, of preparing the wax, of
coloring the fruit and giving it the proper outward texture. The second
part describes all the articles and materials required for making even
the most elaborate of WAX FLOWERS; gives the way of preparing
the wax, including its formation into sheets of any required thickness,
with all the minutiæ relating to coloring, &c. The text is clearly and
simply written, and by the aid of ample illustrations everything is made
plain to the learner.
It is wonderful how exquisitely flowers may be imitated--making one wish
a device for the secreting of the appropriate perfumes.
The wax once gathered by bees through many a bower,
Glows again in the form of a beautiful flower.
The artist in wax enjoys the best of opportunities for learning Botany,
both analytically and synthetically. A series of models in wax would
make the ocular study of botany possible throughout the year. The taste
for wax flowers is becoming widely extended, and high prices are brought
by the finest specimens of the art. Humanity should heartily welcome an
employment which enables many to escape the suicide of the needle!
DENISE. By the Author of 'Mademoiselle Mori.' In two vols.
New York: James G. Gregory, 540 Broadway.
There is a strange charm about this book. The story is common enough,
the characters have nothing original in their conception, and yet we are
fascinated by the detailed truth of the portraiture from the first page
to the last. The scenes are laid in Farnoux, a town in the old Provençal
districts. The ancient views and manners are still retained, and
interest us by the force of contrast with our own. Mademoiselle Le
Marchand, an odd old maid, with a genius for painting, is really the
character of the book. Denise, the heroine, is quietly and faithfully
drawn. Various picturesque phases of the Catholic faith are artistically
managed, while the faith itself is not treated with much courtesy. As a
general thing we do not like theological novels written from foregone
conclusions. We can imagine however that such a subject might be made
intensely interesting. If a master mind of perfect impartiality would
give us the effect produced upon two minds of equal mental power, of
equal moral worth, by Protestantism or Catholicity--such a study would
both interest and instruct. All religious nicknames should be avoided,
as offensive both to charity and refined taste. Episcopalians do not
like to be called Anglicans; Friends, Quakers; Baptists, Hardshells;
Unitarians, Pantheists; nor Catholics, Romanists. Let us use courtesy to
all men, that so we may have more weight when we attack erroneous
principles.
By all means read Denise; its studies of the heart are close and
accurate.